Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-12-17
service, 9, 400, s76 Of whom are do

tiOl, anu -, oof, IL are cloSStu rs eLli)IOycu
Ut manufacturing and mining. For present
purposes, however, the last number given
should be considerably reduced. Without
attempting TO enumerate, ii will be conceded
that there should be deducted from those
which it includes, $40, lab carpenters and
joiners; 2S5, 10 milliners, d~ressinakers and
seamstresses;' 172, l26 blacksmiths, 133, 76
tailors and tailoresses; 10, 600 masons; TO-
24l butchers; Al, 800 bakers; %, 1872 plaster
ers, and A, s0l manufacturers Of agricul-
persons employed in manafaeiuP.
ing industries such as are claimed
will be benefited by a high tariff.
To these appeal is made to save their en-
ployment and mnintain their wages by reg
istering n change. There should be no dis
position to answer sucl suggestions by ale
cations that they are III a
MINORITY AMONG THos WHO LABOR,
and therefore should forego an advantagein
the interest OF q low price for the majority.
Their compensation, as it may be affected
by the operations of tho tariff laws. should
at all times be scrupuiously kept IL view,
and yet, with slight reelection they viii
not overlook the fact that tAey are consum-
ers with the rest; that they, too, have their
own wants and tl2ze Of their families 10
supply from Their earnings, and that the
prices of the nocos5aries of life, as well rs
the amount OF those wants, will regulate the
measure Of their welfare and comfort.
But the reduction of taxation demanded
should be so measured as not to necessitate
or justify either the loss of employment by
the -woykingman, nor the l~essening of his
wages, and the profits still remain
ing to TIE manufacturer, after
n necessary readjustment, should
furnish no excuse for the sacrifice OF the
interests OF his employees, in either their
opportunity to work or the dimunition OF
their compensation. Nor can the workers
in manufactures understand that while a
high tariff is claimed to be necessary TO al
low the payment of remunerative wages, it
certainly results in q very large increase in
the price of nearly all manufactures which
in almost countless forms he needs for the
use of himself and his family. lie receives
at the desk Of his employer his wages, and
perhaps before he reaches home is obliged,
in the purchase for the family Of articles
which embrace his own labor, to return,
in the payment Of the increasing price which
the tariff permits, the hard earned compen-
sation of many days labor.
The farmer and the agricultural laborer,
who manufacture nothing, but who
"A INCREASED PRICE
which the tariff imposes upon every a%gricul-
tural implement, ulon all they wear, and
upon all they use and own, except the increase
in their focks and herds and such things as
their husbandTy produces from the soil, are
invited to aid in maintaining the present
situation. Mind that they are told that a high
duty on imported wool is necessary for the
benefit of those who have sheep to shear, in
order that the price Of their wool may be
increased.
They of course are not reminded that the
farmer who has no sheep is by this scheme
obliged, in his purchase of clothing and
wooden goods, to pay a tribute to his fellow
farmer, as well as to the manufactures and
merchant, nor is any mention made Of the
fact that the sheep owners themselves and
their household, must wear clothing and uso
other articles manufactured from the wool
they sell at tariff prices, and thus as con-
sumers must return their share of this in
creased price to the tradesman.
/ think it may be fairly assumed that a
large proportion of the sheep owned by the
farmers throughout the country are found
in small hocks. numbering from twenty five
to fifty. The duty on the grade
Of imported wool which these sheep
yield is 10 cents for each
pound Of the value of 30 cents or less and
IL cents for each pound of the value of more
than 20 cents. If the liberal estimate of six
pounds be allowed for each fleece, the duty
thereon would be 60 or 20 cents, and this
may be taken as the utmost advancement Of
its price TO the farmer by reason of this duty.
Eighteen dollars would thus represent the
increased price of the wool from twenty-five
sheep, and $50 that from the wool of fifty
sheep; and at present values, this addi-
ton would amount TO about one third of its
price, if upon its sale the farmer receives
this or a less tariff profit. The wool leaves
his hands charged with precisely that sum,
which, in all its changes, will adhere to it,
until it reaches the consumer. When manu-
featured into cloth and other goods and
material for use its
COST IS NOr ONLY INCREASED
TO the extent of the farmer tariff profit, but
a further sum has been added for the benefit
of the manufacturer under the operation OF
the tariff laws. In the meantime the day
arrives when the farmer finds it necessary
to purchase wooden goods and material to
clothe himself and family for the winter.
When he faces the tradcsman for that pur-
pose he discovers that he is obliged, not
only TO return in the way of Increased
prices his tariff profit on the wool sold, and
which then perhaps lies before him in man.
ufactured form, but that he must add Il con-
siderable sum thereto to meet n further in
crease in cost caused 10y tariff duty on the
manufacture. Thus III the end he is
aroused to the fact that he has paid upon q
made ratio, upon a moderate purchase, rs a
result of the tariff scheme, which, when he
sold his wool, seemed SO profitable, an in
crease in price more than sufficient 10 sweep
away all the tariff profit he received on the
wool he produced and sold.
When the number OF farmers engaged In
wool raising is compared with oil the farm
ers in the country, and the small proportion
they bear TO our population Is considered;
when it is made apparent that, III the case
Of a large part of those who own sheep, the
benefit of the present tariff on wool Is IL
lusory and above all, when it must be
conceded that the increase of the cost of
living, caused by such tariff, becomes a
burden upon those with moderate means,
and the poor, the employed and the unem-
ployed, the sick and the well, and the young
and old, and that it constitutes a tax which
with relentless grasp Is fastened upon the
clothing of every man, woman and child III
the land, the reasons are suggested why the
removal or reduction Of this duty should be
included in a revision of our tariff laws.
In speaking of the increased cost of the
consumer Of our home manufactures, re-
sulting from a
DUTY LAID UPON IMPORTED ARTICLES
Of the same description, the fact is not over
looked that competition among our domestic
producers sometimes has the effect of keep
ing the price of their products below the
highest limit allowed by such duty, but it is
notorious that this competition is too often
strangled by combinations, quite prevalent
1T this time, and frequently called
| trusts, which have for their object
the regulation of the supply and
price of commodities made and sold by
members of the combinations The people
can hardly hope for any consideration in the
operation Of these selfish schemers. If,
however, in the absence of such combina-
ton, healthy and free competition reduces
the prices of any particular dutiable article
IF tha npN nrn1rn.fa, hLlDu, &hn limit